Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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581. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of staff, and from which units, who make up the team from his Department that has been charged with the periodic critical review of SOLAS. [31718/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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A total of six staff members from my Department make up a project team which has been tasked with overseeing the administration of the Periodic Critical Review (PCR) of SOLAS. The staff members come from two units within the Department - the Organisation Development and Operations unit (Corporate), and the Further Education and Training unit, with responsibility for governance, policy and funding matters relating to SOLAS.

In addition a Steering Committee for the oversight of this project has been established and is responsible for delivering the PCR, the members of which, are comprised of external stakeholders from across the sector and various Government Departments, including the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform. There are two staff members from my Department on the Steering Committee.

There is also an internal Working Group within the Department which acts as a main point of contact between the Department and the external consultant tasked with delivering the PCR. The Working Group will deal with regular updates on the progress of the project. There are ten members of staff from the Department who make up the Working Group. The Working Group is made up of members from the following internal business units:

• Organisation Development and Operations.
• FET Policy, Governance and Funding.
• FET Transformation.
• Apprenticeship Policy and Partnership.
• Capital Programmes Delivery.
• Capital Programme Development, Governance and Evaluation.
• Climate Action and Capital Planning.
• Construction and Green Skills.
• Finance.